YOU CAN Buy Locally – Little Steps Guide

23 June 2017

Doesn’t matter that I didn’t want to, though painful, being interested in minimalism and related topics, I’ve become aware of the our environment condition, working conditions and (lack of) ethics of big brands. And here comes the question: Is it possible to buy locally?

For the reason described above, and in connection with the marketing pressure to spend more money before Christmas, in December I’ve presented to you the idea of ​​boycotting big stores and big brands. I wrote why, how and what problems you can expect to meet on this path.

And how did the December experiment run by me?

I was supposed to avoid big stores and trendy brands, judging to what extend such a boycott is really possible.

Two conclusions:

1. Big shops are comfortable.

I could not completely avoid visiting big stores and shopping malls. Why?

Great choice in one place.

In one shop I can buy a kettle, and a bowl for the bathroom, and a gift bag, and bananas.

Walking through the shopping mall, I have a better chance to hunt the clothes I’m looking for than when I go to one shop.

Time saving.

So again: everything in one place. After the social political system transformation (more often miscalled communism) into what we have today in Poland, people are working more, commute farther, take their work home and so on. There is no time left.

2. You can buy locally.

In that month of my experiment, I’ve made friends with a small, local, private grocery shop. Daily little shopping is really cool! You buy what you want to eat today. By doing this, you will not come to the point that you have to eat what you bought a week ago on a big shopping trip so that it does not spoil – even if now you do not want to eat this product.

What gave me more power to do this task was my Two-Year-Old, who can already open the fridge. And he takes things out … And takes out … And picks up and makes up, and mother cleans up from the floor.

With the system of buying food only for one day, it’s easier to choose what to eat, and the products can be pushed on the top shelves (my Son has not yet noticed that he could slide a chair to the fridge too).

For me, generally physically and mentally tired, it’s great that I have little choice. I take products, prepare, eat. Without thinking. Without taking time the choice between the one and the other and analyzing what could spoil earlier, what is healthier …

So minimalism smiles to me again. Or essencialism and simple life. The right amount of products in the kitchen does not leave me hungry and at the same time frees me from small decisions which would take my time, attention and energy. I feed my body and my mental forces remain ready for more serious tasks.

I once heard the theory that a person is able to take up a certain number of decisions per day. Our mind can’t deal with more. So if you use your limit on matching your nail color with bracelets

, on deciding, which cheese to eat today, and so on, then you may have no mental energy for important things.

To buy locally – what can you really change?

I would sum up like this: Even if you can’t give up on visits to supermarkets or shopping malls, buy more in private stores.

It works like my attitude to diet: if you’ll make your stomach full of healthy food, even if you’d still want to eat crisps, you will not be able to eat two packs at a time. If you buy big amounts of groats, eggs, potatoes and something else in the store you want to support, you will buy less in the supermarket.

And even in the shopping mall you can choose local businesses, not network brands. And even when you are in a network shop, you can choose a blouse made in your country, not in Bangladesh. Small steps that slowly make up for a bigger thing.

Start to buy locally.

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